New Customer-Focused Website Launches

Today we finally published our new website after months of work. Chapter, our Creative Agency, have worked wonders in making sure they have risen to the challenge of creating a customer-focused website that is easy to manage behind the scenes, visually very impactful but also adopts a very customer-focused that is different to the 'normal' approach to web design.

Take a look at www.touchwoodsolihull.co.uk

In the brief it was recognised that many visitors to shopping centre websites only want a very brief snippet of information. Traditional website metrics are about stats such as dwell time, click-throughs and more but this was not a key parameter for Touchwood. Our view was two-fold;

1. If they have a particular need for a specific piece of information they should be able to get it on the front page easily. Our research showed us that the vast majority of people either wanted to know what time we opened/closed, how to find us or what brands we had. We also found that many more people than we imagined were looking for job vacancies so this made it on to the front page.

2. Whilst we accepted that some people would be on and gone within thirty seconds we needed to try and promote 'discovery' and surprise people who may have become complacent with the centre. You will see 'centre exclusives' and 'what's on' given prominence and funky presentation rather than buried away in a menu bar.

The designers at Chapter have done a great job in our view but give us your feedback. We gave Chapter the brief of wanting it to be innovative (with regards to other shopping centres) and to win awards so time will tell if they achieve both!